The Art of Translation

The first thing that I did when comparing the two poems was glance at my translation of Catullus 51 and attempt to find any of his obscene language.  After not finding any (thankfully), I began to compare the vocabulary and imagery itself.  The first line seems to be exactly the same, which perhaps was to let his readers know that this was a remake of Sappho’s poem.  Whether this is correct or not, I took the first 4 lines in Catullus to be him speaking about Lesbia’s new lover (perhaps one of those damn barflies!!).  Obviously Sappho was not referring to Lesbia, but I felt as though they both expressed the same type of grief over a love that they were not able to have.  I like how Catullus kept in “sweetly laughing” in his translation, because that shows that Lesbia is happy; and what’s worse than a happy ex-girlfriend/boyfriend?!-especially when you want them back.  Catullus changed Sappho’s “oh it puts the heart in my chest on wings…” to “which steals all senses from miserable me”, which seems a little less poetic but definitely expresses his sorrow efficiently.  Both of these poets play with the notion that their loves take their breath away, by saying that when they look at them, no speech is left.  They also both mention that fire is burning within their skin; a passionate flame has turned to a full out fire and is so potent that it’s now affecting their eyes and ears.  Catullus’ last stanza is him speaking to himself, which we have seen before, and repeats “otium” a few times to emphasize his lackluster lifestyle of late.  This part of the poem was not in Sappho’s; perhaps trying to give himself some words of advice to stop being a pansy!